The Daily Summit - Business has been

[NEWS AND VIEWS]

« Mugabe is in town | Home | Are you sitting comfortably? »

December 10, 2003

Business has been clearing up the ICANN confusion - but bemusing me further.

At an International Chamber of Commerce press conference, ICC boss Maria Livanos Cattaui said "internet governance doesn't exist" - but then implied that she thought it should do.

It's a three step argument. Step one: ICANN doesn't, and shouldn't , govern the internet - "it's a very sophisticated directory." Step two: there are lots of complex "public policy" issues that someone needs to deal with (porn, spam, intellectual property etc). Step three: some mechanism is needed to increase co-operation in this area.

OK. But what mechanism? A "multi-stakeholder forum," a "platform," but something that stops short of an "organisation". I think.

David Steven @ December 10, 2003 01:52 PM | TrackBack

Comments (2)

An organisation is needed to enforce. Or maybe we could use the United States to do that, as we do everything else...

Wait. That's where we are right now, right? And people are asking to help the United States with this difficult task?

"The Internet Peacekeeping Force". It does have a nice ring to it, now doesn't it? Little blue berets and so on... :P

Taran @ December 10, 2003 03:24 PM

More on ICC and WSIS: http://www.circleid.com/article/394_0_1_0_C/

"An organization which purports to be "the voice of world business" is proposing a de facto U.N. takeover of ICANN. The proposal by a senior official of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) would place ICANN under the U.N. umbrella and give a strong role to U.N. agencies and to various national governments, including those that suppress free speech and free enterprise."

In July 2003, the ICC senior official Ayesha Hassan made the following WSIS statement wit a different message:

"Business strongly supports continued private sector leadership of the technical coordination of the internet and thus cannot accept a reference to intergovernmental organizations assuming this role."

Confusing... What do Mrs Hassan and ICC mean?

CircleID may have a point: "Corporations that contribute to the ICC may want to reconsider how best to use their shareholder's resources."

Peter @ December 11, 2003 02:38 AM

Back

Top